The oil market’s three wise men have spoken. The acronym-troika of the IEA, OPEC and the EIA each treat the world to their monthly reports on consecutive days—once they have all read the runes, the theory goes, then the world should have a better idea of what’s what in oil.

That week is this week—the pronouncements have been passed down from on high. So what have we learned?

A driver refuels at a gas station in Dijon, France. Global oil demand will rise faster than expected this year, both the IEA and OPEC forecast, with the developed economies of Europe and the U.S. the focus of growth.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Demand for oil appears to be picking up. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a powerful producer group, was the most optimistic on this. The economies of the U.S. and the European Union are recovering, it said—any continuation of this trend could see its forecasts adjusted upward again.

Both bodies, however, issued the same caveat to these forecasts: uncertainty in emerging markets is casting a cloud over proceedings.

It is demand from these markets in Asia, South America and, to a lesser extent, Africa, that have mostly fueled the oil-price rise from late-2008 lows of $45-a-barrel Brent to consistently above $100 today.

But, in contrast to OPEC’s bullishness, it cautioned that consumption among the industrialized nations that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is expected to stay relatively flat.

Oil prices on Thursday lost some of the gains made earlier in the week, with WTI retreating from a four-month high. Brent crude for March delivery on London’s ICE futures exchange traded down 49 cents, or 0.5%, at $108.30 a barrel. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded down 67 cents, or 0.7%, at $99.70 a barrel. You can read The Wall Street Journal’s oil-markets report here.